Red Wings' Nicklas Lidstrom commits to play for Sweden in Olympics

Nicklas LidstromDETROIT -- Nicklas Lidstrom feels good about his health. And the Swedish Olympic team surely feels much better about its chances to defend its gold medal after the Detroit Red Wings defenseman committed recently to playing in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

"I wanted to give myself a month into the season (to decide), because I was banged up last year and in the playoffs and it took a while over the summer to heal,'' Lidstrom said. "So I just wanted to make sure I was healthy enough and felt good enough to be a part of it.

"It would have been hard to turn something like that down.''

Lidstrom has been bothered by tendinitis in his right elbow for the past couple years. He also was speared in the groin during the playoffs.

The rest would have been beneficial, but Lidstrom, who turns 40 in April, is not concerned about getting worn out during what he said "probably'' is his last Olympics.

"It's exciting. I've been fortunate to play in three other ones,'' Lidstrom said. "It's fun to be a part of, it's a pretty short and quick tournament.''

Lidstrom scored the winning goal in the 2006 gold medal game against Finland.

Sweden is scheduled to announce its roster Dec. 27. In addition to Lidstrom, Red Wings center Henrik Zetterberg is a lock to make the squad. Defenseman Niklas Kronwall is likely to be selected despite a knee injury that will idle him until mid-January.

Tomas Holmstrom appeared to be a long shot coming into the season, and his play over the next few weeks could determine whether he is selected.

Johan Franzen is holding out hope that he can make a quicker-than-expected recovery from knee surgery and return in time for his first Olympics. But that appears unlikely.

The Red Wings are sure to have representation on four other Olympic teams: The U.S. (Brian Rafalski), Russia (Pavel Datsyuk), Finland (Valtteri Filppula and possibly Ville Leino) and Canada (coach Mike Babcock and possibly Dan Cleary, who was invited to the summer orientation camp).